Allergy tests

[BWS1982]

allergy tests

Do you think it might be wise to check into it seeing as how an allergic reaction, if incited, would be quite a bit worse on a Crohnie in a flare than your average joe? For example, lactose intollerance in joe schmoe gives him diarrhea, but in me I'll initiate some bleeding, cramping, severe diarrhea and have flu like symptoms, thus finding out I'm lactose intollerant is critical. My mom said I could always find out on my own through trial and error and documentation of a food journal, but while flaring I don't want to play games with my GI tract and see how far I can push it.

I'd like to check on at least the main ones peanuts, tomatoes, milk, wheat, and maybe some others...

Anyone get allergy tests done, I'd really like to find out so I can get even more control on my symptoms?

 

[butt-eze]

I think it's a great idea to get an allergy test. I should ask my doctor. I know that are crohnies on here that have been allergy tested...

 

[soupdragon69]

Depends on the kind of allergy test you go for from personal experience..

Skin prick tests will show up any allergies within 15-30mins by developing a raised red and white itchy area.

Blood tests (RAST) will show up anything you are allergic too that is circulating histamine as a response to.

The problem with both of these as I discovered from my allergy consultant is that an allergy may not show up on skin or in blood tests if it only occurs in the tissues that are in contact with the food or allergen concerned.

I have skin allergy positive tests to grass, house dust mite and a mould called alternaria.

I have no blood allergy positive tests.

I get wheezy when someone sits in the same room as me eating a ripe banana.
I get wheezy when I eat wheat and gluten based products.

I run to the loo with eggs and have bad diahorrea
I run to the loo with tomatoes and have bad diahorrea

These are just some examples. But was asked recently why am I not carrying adrenaline as when I wear latex gloves in work my skin itches and stings and my skin will tingle on my face.

One for my allergist tomorrow morning I think?

Another thought is that there is a difference between allergy and intolerance and intolerance can be chronic and take time to figure out whereas allergy is easier to spot because of the positive more aggressive response in a short time span i.e minutes to less than an hour. Does that make sense?

Hope that has given you some idea of the minefield and the importance of taking it one step at a time, also just because you are negative in one area doesnt mean you will be in others so it needs to be a multi pronged approach.

 

[D Bergy]

I do not know if this can be applied to Crohn's or not but it is some food for thought.

Being I am so familiar with Lyme disease, I have learned a few things that are pathogen related. When a large pathenogenic bacterial load is present in the body it sometimes produces hypersensitivity to things such as certain foods, chemicals and magnetic fields and frequencies from computers and florescent lights. When the bacterial offender is reduced there is a correlating desensitizing effect.

Some people are likely hypersensitive for other reasons, but a high amount of bad bacteria can also cause these symptoms.

May not apply here, but who knows for sure.

I had a pin prick test for hay fever a few years ago. I was highly allergic to ragweed, which I had already figured out, and some minor reactions to either cat or dog dander, I don't remember which.

Dan

 

[Kev]

Well, just to toss in some more garbage from this old fellow.. But, flourescents do give off so nasty things... first, hertz flicker... so if you notice headaches after a few hours, there's the culprit. Really old flourescents had some rather nasty stuff in the step up transformers... a dielectric fluid you don't want to mess with ever! Transformers (ballast boxes to some folks) do give off/emit hi voltage pulses, but most ballasts, altho at hi voltages, are very low powered.

Computers (MAC's, PC's, laptops) are also sources... Computers with Cathode Ray Tubes (screens, monitors, whatever you want to call them) are others that emit some nasty EMI/EMF ... Like, frinstance, you wouldnt' sit within 2 feet of your TV... but that's how close most people are to their computer. TFT or LCD technology is less energy intensive... but I never set my laptop on my lap. The industry has responded by shielding, but computers have increased in process power... and these puppies CAN/DO eat up power in the 200 - 300 Watt range

That's typically 10 times a flourescent fixture... and altho shielded, EMI leaks do occur... Like, a crude N inappropriate analogy... older police officers learned the hard way (no pun intended) about the leakage of early radar guns. Those who used to sit them in their laps while waiting for the next motorist developed higher than typical rates of bladder and testicular cancers... essentially akin to placing their genital urinary tract in a microwave oven for short period of time.

And, BTW Soup.. sounds like you be able to add latex to your allergies. That could pose a problem, given your profession

 

[soupdragon69]

Interesting post Kev about flourescents (sp?). Yes you are probably right about the latex being added... Asthma/Allergy cons today is running the RAST blood tests again on me to cover the latex and some foods. We will see eh?

 

[Kev]

Well, if you get a headache in a work environment under flourescent (sp?) lights, it is almost a dead certainty that its from the (well, at least in North America) 60 time a second that the lights flicker from the inherrent pulses in alternating currents. It happens so fast that the conscious mind doesn't register it (like, frinstance, really old movies 24 frames a second you could see that annoying flicker... then 'they' doubled the prints of any given frame of film, and people dont' see the flicker at 48 frames a second.. least not concioussly.) The subconscious is a totally other story... it sees the flicker of light, even at the 60 times a second flourescents flicker.. an 8 hour shift of that is pretty much guarranteed to give one a headache.. And lots of folks just write off the cause as the stress at work. Anyway, my babble button is stuck in overdrive. Just I'd like people who work/exposed to that type of lighting to get the 'heads up' OK?

 

[BWS1982]

Interesting Kev, not only do I work in a call center (when I'm healthy enough to go) filled with flourescents, but I also have one in my room. I also am heavily into electronics, and went to a tech/art school, and spent hours on a computer at a time....I don't ever get headaches really though, I've been lucky with that in my life....I get one maybe once a year or so, if that...

 

[Kev]

Well, 'immunity' is a funny thing... As a kid, me and my buddies wandered into a patch of poison ivy. It wasn't funny what it did to them... but I could rub the stuff into my skin and not suffer any reaction. Perhaps your brain is immune to the 60 hertz flicker effect? It is a reality... many folks who spend 8 hours working under them end up with killer headaches.. and it has nothing to do with the colour of the light they give off... so colour corrected ones, or planter version ones, or even those for fish tanks... ALL have the same flicker issue.

As for CRT or other sources of EMI/EMF... the jury is still out on whether there are/aren't long term health risks associated with it.. there was some evidence of hi dose EMI/EMF exposure near hydro towers.. but the source voltages there were in the extreme hi range... and even there, the 'experts' couldn't agree. I dunno how it will all play out in the long run. I hope I live long enuff to see how the 'generation' with the cell phones pressed to one ear and the iPod in the other make out in their middle ages... In the meantime, there's enuff 'real' risk in one's home from indoor air quality or radon gas to lose sleep over if one is the type to toss/turn with 'pending' problems.. rather than sleep on it until they show up.